This invention relates to an apparatus for placing road markers on the surface of a roadway at selected locations.
This country is criss-crossed by hundreds of thousands of miles of highways. Most of these roads have some markings on the surface such as painted lines to denote the center of the highway on two-lane roads and to denote the lines on four or more lane divided highways. Sometimes the lines are painted to show where the edge of the road is. These paintings are of course quite helpful. However, the paint does tend to wear away and sometimes it is difficult to see the paint on a rainy, dark night. One method of marking roads which for some areas replaces the painted lines, is the securing of reflectors to the roadway at selected locations. These reflectors are extremely helpful to motorists on dark, rainy nights inasmuch as they show the driver where the roadway actually is.
There have been numerous ways of securing these reflectors to the surface of the roadway. One common way is to apply an epoxy at selected spaced locations along the roadway and then place the reflectors in the epoxy puddle and let the epoxy cure. A more recent and less expensive way of depositing an adhesive to the road way is a thermal adhesive applicator which deposits bitumen on selected locations along the road and has been developed by Downing Manufacturing Company, 4525 South 34th West Ave., Tulsa, OK. Its model PD-1001 is a hand pushed thermal adhesive applicator and its model PD-2001 is a tractor pull model which is a new self-contained thermal adhesive applicator. In that latter application a heater heats the bitumen contained in a vat to about 425.degree. F. where it becomes a liquid and can be pumped. The temperature is thermostatically controlled. A stir is provided and may be either hand operated or driven by a motor. The vat has an outlet which is attached to a pump assembly. An operator is positioned to one side of the frame of the trailer and an articulated conduit extension outlet of the pump assembly to a bitumen dispensing valve which has an upstanding handle which can be grasped by the operator. An operator rides on the applicator and dispenses the hot liquid bitumen at the correct spot. Thereafter, a worker manually takes a single reflector or marker in his hand and then places it in the hot puddle. If he doesn't drop it just right where it is essentially level, he must step on it with his foot to position it properly.
It is thus an object of this invention to provide a marker and/or reflector dispenser which will drop the markers at a level position on a puddle of adhesive.